Though Team India has done well in white-ball cricket, they have found themselves in a spot of bother on more than one occasion when it comes to the red-ball variant, especially on overseas tours. Despite being the No.1 team in Tests, India have failed to win enough games in the longer format to vindicate their top rank in the whites.

Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid, who was a prolific scorer in all forms – be it in ODIs or Tests – came up with an explanation over the vast difference between India’s performance in the different formats. According to the legendary batsman, it is nothing but their lack of practice with the red ball that makes their batting in the longer format look “work in progress”. He said the reverse is also true because of the same reason. India excel in the 50-over and 20-over formats because of the amount of cricket they play in those two.

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It’s all about practising more and less

“It’s the amount of white-ball cricket and, therefore, the hours of short-format training that make the Indians so good in one-day international and Twenty20 International cricket. Not to forget the bench strength, which is quite well rounded,” an NDTV report cited the former batsman’s quote.

Speaking about India’s batting woes in Test cricket, something which was seen repeatedly in the recent tour of England where no other batsman apart from captain Virat Kohli could bat consistently well.

“Work constantly needs to happen. It is not a one-time thing or a two-year thing. Make sure there are opportunities every year,” said Dravid, who averaged almost 69 in Tests in England with six centuries, when asked about India’s batting in the longer format. As a remedy to the problem, The 45-year-old said that the programme that exists at the U-19 and ‘A’ team level needs to be tightened.